NKTA's Long History of Community Action on Outdoor Accessibility
It all started back in 2007 at the Kingston Middle School Gym when a local land owner announced at a public meeting plans to sell +7,000 acres of their tree-farmland holdings in north Kitsap. NKTA's non-profit organization was formed shortly thereafter in 2008 to help create a vision of linear habitat corridors with interconnected land & water trail networks for multi-modal recreation & safe non-motorized "active" transportation that connect communities to parks, schools and open space for public access across Kitsap's north end.
HISTORIC LOCAL MILESTONES (shortlist):
2008, NKTA received (2) National Parks Service Grants to help implement this planning process. NKTA spent the next few years and several hundred hours of volunteer time in the field route-finding and hosting public input events to create the "String of Pearls" Trail Plan.
2011 Kitsap County adopted NKTA's Trail Plan and the Sound to Olympics (STO) Trail and the community collector trail network was launched. This kind of Community Action saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultant fees.
2012 NKTA joined the Kitsap Forest and Bay Coalition Project along with numerous other jurisdictions, tribes and local coalition groups to conserve as much of that tree-farmland as possible.
2014 with NKTA's trail advocacy, Kitsap County expanded North Kitsap Heritage Park to incorporate existing and future trail corridors as defined in NKTA's "String of Pearls" Trail Plan. Also that year, NKTA's Kitsap Peninsula Water Trails network is designated as part of the National Water Trails System.
2015 the Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) acquires the Grovers Creek Preserve and Kitsap County completes a feasibility study on that STO section of the "Divide Forest" land in accordance with NKTA's trail plan.
2016 NKTA purchased a trail corridor easement across private land adjacent to the Divide Forest to secure future STO route access to the Port Gamble tree-farmland.
2017 NKTA along with all of the other Kitsap Forest & Bay Coalition partners celebrate the completion of the land acquisition that has become the 3,500-acre Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park. NKTA continues active involvement by partnering with Parks Department in the stewardship of the park, the master planning process and the trail maintenance along with funding numerous trail safety and habitat improvements.
2018 NKTA celebrates the completion of the STO's first mile constructed on Bainbridge Island. NKTA participated in a national Rails to Trails Conservancy workshop that chose the STO and the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) as their preferred route for the Great American Rail Trail across the USA, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. NKTA also celebrates the completion of the county's STO feasibility study thru the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park. With (2) REI Grants, NKTA begins funding and constructing numerous park improvement projects like the construction of the Bluff Trail for waterfront access, Beaver Pond Observation Boardwalk, a Trail Bridge and the View Platform (REI Outpost on Google Maps).
2019 NKTA actively participates in the 2-year long master planning process of Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park.
2020 NKTA Board members and Kitsap County Commissioner join the Leafline Trails Coalition, bringing the STO trail into a 450-mile Puget Sound regional trail network. NKTA participates in Poulsbo's SR Hwy 305 public planning to advocate for a STO tunnel under the roundabout at the Johnson Parkway-Noll Road improvement project.
2021 NKTA weathered the COVID pandemic with limited activity on Zoom meetings while advocating the need for more public access on trails to parks and open space.
2022 NKTA partnered with Peninsula Trails Coalition and Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation to create the Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) Collaborative. These (3) Community Action non-profit groups pooled their resources to hire a consultant to write a federal R.A.I.S.E. Grant application. Also, along the future STO route in Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park, NKTA donated funds to Kitsap Forest & Bay Coalition partners to help purchase 756-acres of mature "timber-rights".
2023 PS2P Collaborative and their (13) jurisdictional partners are awarded $16.23 mil. federal R.A.I.S.E. Grant to fund the design of 34 trail projects, filling the 100-mile "gaps" in the (3) county, 200-mile trail network from Bainbridge Island ferry terminal to the Pacific Ocean near Forks, WA. NKTA participates in the Poulsbo's ribbon-cutting event at the SR-305 pedestrian tunnel and approx. 1-mile of Johnson Parkway STO.
2024 NKTA donates funds and participates in Bainbridge's "Welcome Pole" and native plant restoration projects along their STO corridor. NKTA celebrates the completion of Kitsap Forest and Bay Project's land acquisition phase when the Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) announces their purchase of the Divide Community Forest. Also, NKTA funds and implements a forest understory native plant demonstration project with Kitsap Parks and other partners at the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park's Evan Stoll Memorial view platform, which he helped construct in 2018.
2025 NKTA helps fund and participates in a "Policy Ride" of local elected officials along the STO route from Poulsbo to Bainbridge Island ferry terminal. Also, (2) NKTA Board members joined the GPC's Divide Community Forest's Citizens Advisory Committee.
2026 NKTA and Friends partnered with GPC to fund and build approx. 1-mile of the Divide Community Forest Access Trail. NKTA also partnered with West Sound Cycling Club and others to form Poulsbo's "Green-Paint" ad-hoc Citizens Advisory Committee, coordinated multiple bicycle rides with Poulsbo's mayor around town studying first-hand pedestrian and bicycle safety issues at many street and intersections. Committee presented graphic illustrations to city engineering staff on improving safety at these intersections. This committee will continue attending the planning process as part of the city's upcoming infrastructure improvements and R.A.I.S.E. Grant PS2P Project.
Public access to land and water trails is a core element of NKTA's mission. Accessibility on land trails in Kitsap County is a challenging task at hand, since the ancient glaciers did not get the "memo". NKTA advocates that most if not all of the STO's primary route should be accessible whenever possible for all non-motorized users of all ages and abilities, in accordance with state's policy on e-assist type of mobility devices. In 2026, NKTA has funded a series of short video projects to help illustrate how this Community Action is important.
